I remember as a kid, back when life was in black and white, the day my Mom brought home the Halloween pumpkin was a big deal. My parents were kind of cheap so we usually got ours on November 1st. Hopefully you aren't as frugal as my folks were.

I have often wondered why in the heck someone would purchase a pumpkin this far away from Halloween. It's been my experience the pumpkins tend to rot and invite millions of little flying creatures to come buzz about your front porch.

Your pumpkin will stay fresher longer if the temperature is relatively cool. The optimum temperature would be from 50 to 55 degree Fahrenheit. Since this is Louisiana, that aint gonna happen. Even in our warm Louisiana October fall days your pumpkin, uncarved, should be alright.

You do need to think about this. Once you stab and start carving your pumpkin to turn it into a Jack-O-Lantern your window of freshness drops to about five days. With Halloween on Monday October 31st you'd probably want to save the carving until the weekend of the 28th to make sure your ghoulish gourd looks more like a scary Halloween specter than a pug dog who has been chasing parked cars.